Insider Defends Devin Booker's Seismic Contract Extension

Basketball fans were stunned at the annual number of Devin Booker's two-year, $145 million maximum contract extension with the Phoenix Suns, but this is just another number in an ever-growing NBA salary cap.

ESPN Salary Cap Analyst and insider Bobby Marks assured that the massive contract will eventually make sense in the near future.

"I kind of knew that was coming," Marks said to PHNX of Booker's extension. "When you look at it, certainly with Devin, even with three years left on his original supermax deal, with management coming out and saying 'we're going to build around him,' it just makes more sense as far as the lock up.

"That 75 [million dollars] in that last year probably pops out, but that 75 in five years might be like 50 right now, and that's kinda how we have to look at money moving forward."

Booker's extension through the 2029-30 season is the highest annual extension salary in NBA history. As the franchise's greatest player of all time, he undoubtedly deserves this as one of the few remaining players in the NBA to stick with the same team that drafted him for at least 10 seasons.

Ahead of his 11th season in the league, Phoenix is enduring a "retooling" period, as general manager Brian Gregory puts it, and is focusing on building around Booker to compete sooner rather than later. At 28, Booker is in the midst of his prime years.

The Suns started by trading Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and picks that eventually became Duke big man Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Koby Brea. Phoenix is also exploring the possibility of waiving and stretching, or outright buying out, Bradley Beal, who is due $110 million over the next two seasons.

Maneuvering this transition hasn't been easy, and it won't get easier. All the Suns can hope for is Bradley Beal willingly forfeiting upwards of $14 million to facilitate a successful buyout that would get the franchise out of the dreaded second apron and into a better financial situation that would allow more flexibility in building out the roster.

Booker's 10 years in Phoenix have been mostly disappointing, to no fault of his own. Constant losing led up to a finals appearance in 2022, but that team was split up the very next season for Durant. The Durant era was perhaps even more disappointing because of the sheer expectations a team with Durant, Booker and Beal had.

Nonetheless, Booker has shown that he's committed to the franchise and will stick it out for what is likely the rest of his career.

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